In this case study, we see an experienced facilitator working dynamically with word families. Nancy starts with a word family that begins with a particular consonant. Then, when she has worked in several modalities with this word family, she moves on to a word family that begins with the same consonant and a vowel. And then to a word family that begins with the same consonant and different vowel.

This case study indicates some of the advantages of working on phonics with word families.

• Work on word families can be integrated into meaningful language work.
  Word families are lists of words. These words can be the names of group members, familiar words from the dictionary, words from books students are reading, words from stories that students have written. The tutor or facilitator can use word families to present specific phonics information which she has identified in advance as potentially useful, but the words that are sued to present this information can be chosen spontaneously, from whatever language work is going on at the time. Because the phonics work uses words from the meaningful language work, the phonics work always stays connected to meaningful language, through these words.
• In word families, the basic language unit is the word, which is a recognizable, memorable, pronounceable unit of language.
  This point about working on word families is related to the first point. Words are meaningful, while individual letters and speech sounds are not. because each word is meaningful in itself, it can be recognized in the flow of language, and remembered. Words that are important in a student’s language and experience will be particularly recognizable and memorable. Also, words are pronounceable units of language, while some individual speech sounds are not easily pronounceable in isolation. (Try producing a “b” sound without a following vowel.)
• Word families give learners the opportunity of discovering patterns in the flow of speech for themselves, in different sensory/motor modalities.
  For example, in the case study, the students discovered that “Maggie”, “muscle”, “meat”, and “microphone” all begin with the same speech sound, and that “Maggie”, “macaroni”, “mangle” and “man” all begin with the same two speech sounds. They discover this through listening to words that they know, and through cursive handwriting, which, like speech, is a sequence of connected but distinguishable elements. Patterns of this kind are not immediately obvious to non-readers. A number of studies have shown that it is not easy for adults to notice individual speech sounds in the flow of speech, unless they are used to seeing them represented in an alphabetic writing system. Learning phonics information through word families is learning new information about speech sounds and corresponding letters from old information: familiar words.
• Word families are flexible.
  Words can be grouped to emphasize any number of patterns. When a learner is having difficulty with a particular kind of sequence of letters or speech sounds, a word family with that sequence of letters or speech sounds can be created, using words that are familiar and relevant to the learner.